we have had a wet corner in our basement since we built the house over 5 years ago (a simple fix). we totally flooded twice over the past year which we think is a seperate problem. Our house was built to low and we cannot slope the dirt away from the house on most sides because of cement. On the one side that we can. how do we tell if we are 6in. over 4 ft. of fall? On the sides that we cant...what can we do? we had a water intrusion specialist come out and do dye tests. water pours in from our driveway side from holes that were drilled into the basement block, (part of slab in corner removed) to relieve the water builing up in the wall. The water specialist says we need to remove and then replace and compact the dirt around the house. The builder wants to use hydraulic cement in the spaces between the driveway and garage seal it all up and let it go into the sump pump. There is question as to whether that wall is waterproofed. You can feel air coming in through the drilled holes. the builder is telling us that this and water coming in, or building up is normal on a garage side. he did replace the 2 downspouts to accept more water. I guess my question is will compacting the dirt help us. what else could we do?

Answers

Have you considered putting in a french drain outside near where the problem is coming from? Maybe you could dig a trench, put in a perforated drain pipe surrounded by gravel, then drain it to daylight?